Warnings for the 2015 spring rice crop

(Baonghean) - This year's spring rice crop has been planted on 90,371 hectares in Nghe An province. This is the spring rice crop with the largest rice area ever. However, with warm weather conditions, high humidity, lots of fog, air temperature higher than average for many years, little light at the beginning of the season, very little rain. Therefore, the current spring rice crop is facing many possible disadvantages.

Farmers in Bac Thanh commune (Yen Thanh) take care of spring rice. Photo: Ho Cac

Early spring rice flowering, risk of reduced yield

Up to this point, it can be confirmed that this year's spring crop is warm, even approaching the threshold of "too warm" and drought. Therefore, it is expected that there will be about 10,000 hectares of rice that are likely to bloom early, blooming 10 days or more ahead of the crop calendar prescribed by the Ministry of Agriculture (the calendar for rice blooming in the spring crop is from April 25 to May 5). Thus, this area will bloom concentrated in the early days of mid-April onwards. The remaining area of ​​the spring crop will also bloom 3-5 days ahead of the prescribed crop calendar, depending on the variety and level of care. With the expected rice blooming time as mentioned above, it is very easy to encounter cold air and low temperatures of the Qingming festival, reducing rice yield.

To limit early rice flowering, production facilities and farmers at this time absolutely must not let rice fields dry out. The more water-drained the fields are, the faster the rice plants will differentiate panicles, the earlier the rice flowers, the shorter the growing period, and the lower the rice yield. Therefore, there must be active measures to maintain the water level in the fields regularly from 3 - 5 cm or deeper, the better, to slow down the process of panicle differentiation and flowering of rice plants.

Leaf blast disease can easily progress to neck blast disease.

Due to the cloudy weather, lack of light, high humidity, and fog in recent days, the blast fungus has caused severe damage to rice leaves. In most localities from the plains to the mountainous districts, blast disease has appeared at different levels. Among them, blast disease causes the most damage to rice varieties AC5, BC15, Xi23, NX30, Thien Nguyen uu 16, Nghi Huong 2308, Khai Phong, Nhi uu 986 and Nhi uu 838. In the plains, the district with the most severely affected rice area is Hung Nguyen with an area of ​​nearly 1,700 hectares, accounting for approximately 30% of the district's rice area. In communes such as Hung Phuc, Hung Loi, Hung Lam... many areas of Xi 23 rice variety have been burned. In the mountainous districts, Thanh Chuong is the district with the rice area infected with blast disease up to 736 hectares, the most affected communes are Thanh Huong and Thanh Thinh due to planting a lot of Nhi Uu 986 rice variety, a variety susceptible to the disease.

Farmers spray pesticides to prevent rice blast disease

Due to early detection and timely prevention, the possibility of infection of the disease is being controlled. However, do not underestimate the prevention of rice blast disease after spraying pesticides. For rice blast disease, each lesion in the chronic stage can release 3,000 - 6,000 spores in 1 day and night and last for 15 days. When the lesion is seen to be chronic, it is necessary to spray again after 5 - 7 days from the first spraying date and only use specific drugs such as Filia 525 SE, Amistar Top 321 SC, spray according to the instructions clearly stated on the packaging and label. Only then can the possibility of spreading from leaf blast disease to neck blast disease be limited. If rice blast disease is not well prevented right at the stage when the disease is developing on the leaves, the possibility of the fungus being accumulated and retained, when the weather is favorable, the fungus will develop, causing disease at the stage when the rice begins to flower. Rice infected with neck blast and grain blast disease is of poor quality and cannot be used for animal husbandry (including livestock).

Brown planthopper outbreaks can cause rice fires.

The current hot and humid weather is very suitable for the development of brown planthoppers. It is likely that in April this year, brown planthoppers will develop strongly in most rice areas in the province. Of particular note are the low-lying areas with water sources flowing from many places. The period when brown planthoppers develop strongly is also the period when rice plants enter the stage of panicle initiation, flowering and wax ripening.

Currently, in most areas of the province, planthoppers have appeared in the fields, but the density is not high, so it is necessary to regularly visit the fields to detect planthoppers and check the density. If the density of planthoppers is 1,000 individuals/m2 during the rice panicle and flowering period, spray immediately with pesticides such as Chess 50 WG, Oshin 20 WP, Elsin 10 EC, Sutin 50 SC, Chatot 600 WG... according to the recommended dosage on the pesticide packaging. If the rice has flowered and is in the waxy stage and the density of planthoppers is high, from 1,500 - 2,000 individuals/m2 or more, spray immediately to prevent rice burning. The type of pesticide to use at this time should be pesticides with strong contact and fumigant effects such as: Victory 585 EC, Penalty gold 40 EC, Bassa 50 EC. When spraying, ensure enough amount of pesticide from 25 - 30 liters/sao and need to divide the rice into strips to spray, spray evenly on the rice stem and leaves.

During this period, if not detected and prevented promptly, brown planthoppers will cause massive rice fires and the ability to spread very quickly, causing great crop damage is inevitable.

Mice are likely to cause great damage to the spring rice crop.

For several years now, there has been almost no heavy rain or major floods, so there are more opportunities for rats to breed and thrive. This year's spring rice crop is predicted to be most severely damaged by rats. Currently, in our province's fields, especially in the delta, it can be said that there is no place that is not damaged by rats. Especially in areas where early planting, dense planting, and long-term spring rice varieties such as IR1820, AC5, BC15, NX30, Xi23 and hybrid rice varieties are planted, and where intensive cultivation is good, rats have now begun to cause severe damage.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhuan, an officer in charge of agriculture in Hung Phuc commune (Hung Nguyen) said: The whole commune planted 255 hectares of rice this crop. Currently, rats are destroying rice fields everywhere. The commune People's Committee has allocated funds to buy poison and rat killer to distribute to hamlets in the commune to go out to the fields at night to kill rats. But it seems that it will be difficult to kill rats if the district People's Committee does not soon have a policy to assign the task to the commune People's Committees to mobilize the entire population to participate in killing rats as a large campaign in the whole district...

In Long Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), a low-lying area that has not had floods for many years, rats have developed a lot. Mr. Nguyen Van Sy, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: This crop, the whole commune planted 553.8 hectares of rice with BC15, AC5 and some hybrid rice varieties. Now, many rats have appeared in the fields, destroying the rice. The Commune People's Committee has continuously launched a campaign to kill rats. Agricultural cooperatives in the commune have allocated agricultural extension funds to support people with 2,000 VND per sao of rice to buy rat poison. Because there are so many rats, the cooperatives also mobilized farmers to contribute an additional 10,000 VND per sao to buy biological bait to kill rats.

The current rice-destroying rat problem, especially in the coming days when rice is in the ear and flowering stage, is not a locality-specific risk. Therefore, localities cannot be negligent or subjective, and from now on, under the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development together with the People's Committees of districts, cities and towns, need to promptly launch a campaign to exterminate rats from inside the house to the fields by various measures: digging and catching, using hunting dogs, smoking or pouring water into rat nests to let rats run out and exterminate them, using bait to kill rats. Note that this type of bait is placed at night, collected during the day and must be preserved very carefully. The method of using poisonous bait to kill rats should only be done continuously for a few nights, then collected and carefully destroyed by digging a deep hole and burying it in the ground.

Doan Tri Tue